Top 3 best performing stocks so far this year

When investing in stocks, it’s important for traders to use the best trading tools for spotting the assets with the highest potential. To make better and more profitable trading decisions, you first need to decide if you’re going to use a systematic trading strategy or a discretionary one. Then, you can develop your trading plan.

A discretionary trading method is a strategy based on a trader’s own choices and analysis to determine the future direction of the market and set up entry and exit points accordingly. A systematic trading strategy, on the other hand, is based on automated trading technology that opens and closes trading positions according to predetermined parameters.

Whichever approach you use, here are 3 of this year’s best performing stocks that you might want to include in your investment portfolio.

Snap Inc.
+139%

The Snap Inc. stock price has almost tripled since December’s low and has gained about 139% since the beginning of the year. The company has also worked hard on improving its operational efficiency. While other social networks like Facebook have been struggling with compliance, regulation, and data security issues, Snap Inc. is becoming more popular and is regaining its dominance among teenagers.

The company is also providing an increasing number of fun, teen-focused features, strongly supporting growth in this key demographic, which is promising in terms of the company’s stock price. In addition, the firm has also rolled out a range of new augmented reality features.

“The latest launch of lenses is among some of the most impressive product innovation we have seen in some time from the company,” according to Michael Levine, senior analyst of internet & media at Pivotal Research Group. “This, in our opinion, constitutes real innovation in augmented reality,” he added.

Shopify
+122%

Shopify shares have been rising since the beginning of the year, gaining more than 122%, and might well maintain the momentum to form new highs in the current unpredictable environment. Shopify is a strong brand with impressive growth that can offer great trading opportunities.

Christopher Merwin, Goldman Sachs analyst, warns traders to be careful with this stock, although acknowledging its growth potential. “While we see a very long runway for growth — and growing barriers to entry around platform adoption — we believe valuation is challenging here,” he explained to clients.

“[Small-to-medium business] vendors are building out platforms that offer a greater breadth of first-party product and third-party integrations. […] We think this shift will increase customer retention while also pulling SMB vendors up market, which should also help to improve overall sales efficiency and unit economics.”

Coty
+94%

American multinational beauty company Coty Inc. has been among the top performers this year, increasing more than 94% since January. During its last earnings release, Coty announced adjusted earnings of 13 cents per share for Q3, with revenues of USD 1,990.6 million.

While the consumer beauty segment is slowing, the company is working on different ways to increase its value, including finalizing strategic acquisitions, upgrading its systems, and optimizing its operations, manufacturing and logistics process, while simplifying its operations.